﻿<title>Turning With Sweep Strokes - Forward Sweep and Reverse Sweep</title>

<h1>Turning With Sweep Strokes  - Forward Sweep and Reverse Sweep</h1>

<div id="1">It might sound quite obvious that to make the kayak turn, you just have to paddle harder on the opposite side. But actually that would mostly just increase the overall speed and do very little to turn the kayak. This means that we need to modify our forward paddling stroke a bit and do a so called <b>forward sweep.</b><br /><br />It is a good choice to be your primary steering stroke, because it doesn't slow you down and makes it easy maintain your paddling rhythm.</div>

<div id="2">Forward sweep stroke can be done when the kayak is moving, or when it is standing still.<br /><br/> First take a regular <b>forward paddling grip</b> from the paddle. Place the <b>blade into the water as forward as you can easily reach</b> and keep the <b>power face</b> of the blade <b>pointed away from the kayak</b>. Keep the <b>other hand fairly low.</b></div>

<div id="3">Start doing a <b>big arc</b> that starts close to the bow and ends near the stern. Do the stroke <b>by rotating your torso and try to keep your hands as still as possible</b>.<br /><br />At the beginning of the stroke the kayak's bow is pushed away from the paddle, and at the end the stern is pulled closer to the paddle, making the kayak turn to the opposite side of the stroke.<br /><br /><b>TIP:</b><br />Sometimes only a little change to the kayak's direction is needed, and then you can do a stroke that is something in between the sweep stroke and forward paddling stroke.</div>

<div id="4">To make the kayak turn rapidly on its place, a good addition to forward sweep stroke is a <b>reverse sweep stroke</b>. Basically that <b>is the forward sweep done backwards</b>, starting from the back and ending close to your toes.</div>